The tucan fish (''Chalceus erythrurus''), also called the yellowfin chalceus, is a species of freshwater fish in the family Chalceidae. It is one of five species in the genus ''

Chalceus ''Chalceus'' is a genus of fish that inhabits freshwater habitats in South America. Members can be found in the Amazon River, Amazon and Orinoco basins, as well as in the The Guianas, Guianas and various tributaries of the former. It is the sole ...

'', and was the second species to be described therein.

Description

The tucan fish has a pale-silver body, with bright-yellow ventral fins (hence its other common name); the rest of its fins are some mixture of yellow and red, usually with a reddish tail fin. In terms of size, it reaches 21.4 cm SL. This makes it one of the larger members of the genus ''Chalceus'', outsized only by the pinktail chalceus.

Etymology

The name "tucan fish" directly translates to "toucan fish", as "tucán" means

toucan Toucans (, ) are Neotropical birds in the family Ramphastidae. They are most closely related to the Semnornis, Toucan barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful Beak, bills. The family includes five genus, genera and over ...

in Spanish. All members of the family Chalceidae are sometimes referred to as tucanfishes, but ''C. erythrurus'' is the species to which it is most often applied. The genus name ''Chalceus'' is Greek, and means brass or copper. The specific name ''erythrurus'' also originates in Greek, with "eruthros" meaning red and "ouros" meaning tail in reference to its caudal fin usually being reddish.

Taxonomy

Upon being described by Edward Drinker Cope in the year 1870, the tucan fish was placed in the new genus ''Plethodectes'' with the full name ''Plethodectes erythrurus''. However, Cope switched it over to the genus ''Chalceus'' in the year 1872. It was briefly classified as ''Chalceus macrolepidotus iquitensis'', a subspecies of the pinktail chalceus ''C. macrolepidotus'', by Shoji Nakashima in 1941. Henry Watson Fowler described it as ''Pellegrinina heterolepis'' in 1907, but Jacques Géry proved it to be a member of the ''Chalceus'' genus in 1977. The name ''Chalceus erythrurus'' was once mistakenly applied to ''C. macrolepidotus'', and they are sometimes confused with one another. They can be told apart because of the tucan fish's bright-yellow ventral fins, as well as a few other coloration patterns.

Habitat

The tucan fish can be found in the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

and Solimões rivers, and its habitat extends into Peru by way of the

Ucayali The Ucayali River (, ) is the main headstream of the Amazon River. It rises about north of Lake Titicaca, in the Arequipa region of Peru and becomes the Amazon at the confluence of the Marañón close to Nauta city. The city of Pucallpa is lo ...

river.

Diet and behavior

Like others in the genus Chalceus, the tucan fish is primarily a

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...

, targeting aquatic invertebrates (such as insects and crustaceans). It is known to be somewhat skittish, and may jump out of the water on occasion.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4746460 Chalceidae Fish of South America Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope Fish described in 1870